Johnny and the limit
by vic elor
Summary: Mary is upset that none of the guys in her life notice her and goes to her little brother Johnny for help.
1. Late one night

Johnny wearily opened his eyes, squinting out into his darkened bedroom. In the faint glow of the alarm clock (which read 12:15 AM with its red digital numbers) he could make out what appeared to be the shape of a person… or maybe a cactus sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Johnny, am I ugly?" A soft feminine voice asked.

"Well, I guess it's not a cactus." Johnny mumbled, barely awake and rather distraught by the invasion of his privacy.

"What?" The voice asked with a hint of confusion before becoming softer and more apologetic, "I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"Ah, yes! It's after midnight… and I was in my bed… sleeping!" Johnny replied angrily.

"I'm sorry, I'll let you get back to sleep."

"Good!"

"Right after you answer a question for me."

Johnny groaned, still not 100% sure who he was talking too although he had concluded it was one of his sisters; after all, Cissy would never be so bold as to break into his house at night.

"Am I ugly?" The voice asked, hints of panic in her voice.

"What? Why are you asking me?" Johnny asked.

"Well… I can accept that Gil hasn't noticed me despite my 2,382 attempts to get his attention and make him love me but…" The voice explained.

"But what? Being crazy obsessed about a boy who doesn't know you exist isn't enough? What else is there?"

"Eugene. I mean, I don't like him… he's repulsive even by dweeby boy standards but…"

"But what?"

"He doesn't even act like he knows I exist! He goes after Susan with undeniable enthusiasm and passion but has barely ever said my name aside from the time we gave him that lozenge that altered his brain! So since Gil won't notice me and Eugene doesn't notice me… I must be ugly."

Johnny sighed. Usually he'd say something witty (or at least something that seemed witty to himself and Dukey) but Mary really seemed upset… not to mention its hard to think of witty things to say at midnight.

"You're not ugly." Johnny replied, again with a sigh. He hoped in vain that his simple statement would be enough but as his eyes adjusted to the light he could see Mary was still there and hints of a slim trail of tears streaming down her face.

"Really, you're not ugly. I mean, Gil doesn't notice either of you and that's probably because he's spent too much time in the sun and Eugene… I can't even begin to imagine why he only picks out Susan and not both of you."

Again Johnny hoped that what be enough but though he could tell Mary was listening to him it was clear his statements hadn't affect her.

"Seriously, don't tell Susan I said this but I can't understand why Eugene doesn't go after you. You're prettier, kinder, and less manic then Susan on her best day!"

"Are you being serious?" Mary asked.

"Of course, I don't lie this early in the morning… except in my bed… asleep… like both of us should be doing right now." Johnny replied, hoping his little sarcasm would get Mary to leave.

"You're right." Mary replied softly, her voice displaying a hint of relief.

Before Johnny could lie back down he felt Mary's slender arms wrap around his neck and her soft, tender lips press up against his and linger there some time. Johnny was suddenly discombobulated; his sisters had kissed him before and it only happened after he did something extremely important for them and they were having a family bonding moment. Assuring Mary that she wasn't ugly could fall into that scenario, Johnny thought, but Mary wasn't giving him the usual squeeze hug and peck on the cheek.

"Good night Johnny." Mary whispered as she finally backed away from Johnny. With the lights still out neither Mary nor Johnny could see how red and flushed their faces were. A few seconds later Johnny heard the latch on his bedroom door close, letting him know Mary was gone.


	2. The next morning

The next morning as Johnny waited outside for his school bus, Dukey who had been unusually quiet even after moving out of earshot of his parents finally decided to speak up.

"So, do I need to ask or are you going to just tell me what you did?" Dukey asked.

"I didn't do anything!... I mean, wait… what do you mean?" Johnny replied, instinctively denying at first before realizing he wasn't even sure what he was denying.

"I don't know what you did but you must have done something seeing Mary was giving you weird looks all throughout breakfast." Dukey explained.

"Oh, you noticed that too? Yeah, it's nothing; I just help her with a problem last night."

"Last night? When? I didn't see you test anything last night?"

"It wasn't a test… and you were sleeping."

"If it wasn't testing some new invention, what did you help her with then? I mean let's face it, besides being a guinea pig there isn't much you can do to help them that they can't just make a robot to do instead. Besides videogames of course." Dukey replied with a chuckle.

"First, ouch." Johnny said sarcastically, "and second, she was having some weird girl moment… babbling something about being ugly and having a freak out; you know, normally girl stuff."

"So how did you help her?"

"I told her she wasn't ugly."

"And that's it?" Dukey asked, starting to sound a bit nervous.

"Yeah… pretty much."

"What do you mean 'pretty much'?"

"Well, I may have said she was prettier and calmer and nicer then Susan and that I didn't understand why people liked Susan better 'cause it totally should be the other way around."

"Oh… wait, you said all that?" Dukey asked, starting to panic a bit while the bus approached from the distance.

"Yeah, no big deal." Johnny said as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Yes big deal! You know your sisters are girls and girls are more sensitive and emotional then boys, Mary especially. Susan always bossing her around, Gil and Eugene ignoring her, your mom and dad treating the two of them like they're tied together at the hip… Don't get me wrong, Mary's got a good life but it's not ideal. You made her feel special in a way no one else ever has. You have to be careful otherwise things could get really complicated and weird."

Johnny was silent for a few seconds as the bus approached.

"So, I guess it's probably a big deal then that she gave me a long, creepy kiss on the lips before she left my room last night then?" Johnny asked almost rhetorically.

"WHAT?" Dukey yelped from surprise just as the doors to the school bus opened.

"Did your dog just talk?" The bus driver asked sounding astonished.

"No!" Johnny replied quickly as he hopped on the bus.


	3. freedom at a price

Johnny had begun to freak out shortly after arriving at school and being reminded by Mr. Teacherman that he had a major test that afternoon. Having not learned from every previous test, once again Johnny had not studied and was ill-equipped to take the test. By the time lunch rolled around he had already tried half a dozen different plans to escape the test but to no avail.

That's what made being called to the principals office and finding out that his mother had called to remind him of his dentist appointment and excuse him for the afternoon such a surprise; he didn't particularly want to go see Dr Lowenstein but even a trip to the dentist was better then failing a test and getting yelled at for it.

Upon walking outside to wait for his mom Johnny was surprised to see Susan sitting near by in the hovercraft.

"Hurry up and get over her!" Susan demanded.

"Can't; waiting for mom." Johnny replied indifferently.

"Don't be dense, mom's not coming. I called and used my voice-altering-cellphone-adapter to sound like mom so I could get you out of school."

"Cool… wait, but why? You dorks love school and… wait, speaking of dork-S where's Mary? You guys are always together." Johnny asked.

"That's why I got you out of school. Mary's acting totally weird. One of our lectures at the institute got canceled so I suggested we go home so we could work on our latest invention, a machine that will manipulate Gil's dreams so that he'll dream about asking us out on a date and eventually marrying us…" Susan began.

"Right, and that's not creepy at ALL." Johnny interrupted.

"Anyway," Susan continued, giving Johnny a dirty look, "she said she was too busy and had other plans but that I should go back to the lab if I wanted."

"And?" Johnny asked, not seeing Susan's point.

"What could she possibly have to do that is more important then winning Gil's heart?" Susan asked rhetorically.

"You're just mad she didn't invite you to go with her, aren't you?" Johnny asked pseudo-evilly.

"No… well, alright maybe a little but it's still suspicious." Susan said with a sigh.

"So, how does getting me out of school fit into all this because every moment we stand here talking is a moment I could be at home playing the new smash badger 6...and not being bored."

"You owe me for getting you out of school so you won't fail that history test you're not ready for…"

"How did you know I wasn't ready for it?" Johnny asked, shocked that Susan was aware of his predicament.

"When are you prepared for a test?"

"Good point. Alright, fine… what do you want me to do?" Johnny asked reluctantly.

"I want you to track Mary down and follow her around town and find out what she's doing."

"You want me to spy on our sister because she didn't invite you to go do whatever GIRLY thing she's doing?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Fine, but get me out of here before the principal notices mom's not coming."


	4. The search begins

Johnny peaked around an alley corner with his sister's high-tech binoculars, making sure to keep himself hidden as he scanned down the streets, looking for Mary.

"So, explain to me again why you needed me to come along on this mission?" Dukey asked.

"Because you're my best friend…. And following someone alone while dressed all in black makes you creepy." Johnny explained.

"So, having both of us snooping around makes it less creepy?" Dukey asked sarcastically.

"You're really overthinking this." Johnny retorted, "Ooh! There she is!"

"Where?" Dukey asked, swiping the binoculars from Johnny.

"There, at the end of the block." Johnny replied.

"She's going into the video game store." Dukey thought out loud.

"Why would she go there?… I didn't think Susan or Mary played video games since they're all too violent and childish and not a productive use of time." Johnny asked, making a silly voice and face as he listed off his sisters' complaints about video games.

*A few moments later*

"She's coming out of the store." Dukey alerted Johnny.

"It looks like she has something with her." Johnny stated, "What is it? Can you tell?"

"It's a bag." Dukey replied.

"I can tell it's a bag; I want to know what's in it!" Johnny spouted angrily.

"I don't have x-ray vision Johnny!"

"Yes you do!" Johnny said as he flipped a switch on the side of the binoculars.

"Oh hey, cool! Your sisters make a quality product."

"Yeah yeah, whatever! What do you see?"

"It looks like a copy of smash badger 6… ooh, special edition."

"No way! I'm pretty sure my sisters don't like video games but I KNOW they don't like smash badger."

"Plus the special edition only came out today." Dukey mumbled, pulling down the binoculars to talk to Johnny.

"I know… and I totally want it but I have no money and dad already said no to a loan."

"That's probably because you never pay him back."

"And?"

"And what? That seems like a pretty good reason not to give you a loan."

"Whose side are you on? My dads or mine… the boy who rescued you from the pound even though you smelled funny and had been there for 15 months?"

"Hey, don't get mad at me. I'm just saying, it doesn't surprise me."

"Yeah, you're right." Johnny replied, abruptly switching from drama-queen mode back to normal, "By the way, where is she now?"

"Where is who?"

"Mary!"

"Oh, yeah… umm… she's gone." Dukey said as he abruptly pulled back up the binoculars.

"What? You were supposed to be watching her! You had the binoculars."

"I got distracted." Dukey said with a nervous laugh.

"She's got to be somewhere near by. Let's move, but be sneaky."


	5. Never send a boy

Susan turned around while working on her latest invention when she heard the lab door open. She had expected it to be Mary. When it turned out to be Johnny instead her expression soured from her annoyance.

"Did you find out what she was doing?" Susan asked, cutting to the chase.

"No, not really. We found her at one point going into an electronic store but then Dukey distracted me and we lost her. We tried finding her for like… forever… but then we gave up. Whatever it is she's doing I have no idea what it is."

"First of all, it wasn't 'like forever' because I only got you out of school an hour and a half ago. Second, where is Dukey?" Susan asked.

"He found a flyer in the mail when we got back offering free steaks to the first 100 people who show up to the downtown Porkbelly butcher shop. I figured there had to be a catch but he wouldn't take the chance of missing out on free steak so he left."

"Weird. I didn't hear anything about free steak and there's no evidence of increased crowds in the downtown area. Regardless, it doesn't surprise me Mary escaped from you; after all, she is my twin sister so I guess I shouldn't have sent a boy to a woman's job." Susan said, clearly displaying her dissatisfaction with Johnny's results.

"Whatever. If you think you can do better you look for her then. I'm done wandering around town." Johnny replied, not fazed by Susan's insult. Without saying anything else Johnny left the lab, hearing the hovercraft power on as he walked down the hall towards his room.

As he opened the door to his room he could hear the hovercraft flying passed his window. He didn't pay the craft much attention as the presence of large box covered in red gift wrapping paper sitting on his bed was for more exciting then Susan's departure.

"What the heck is this? It's not my birthday…" Johnny mumbled to himself as he approached his bed, "And it's not Dukey's birthday. Or any other special day for that matter."

On top of the box was an envelope with only the word 'Johnny' written in pink pen on the outside. More concerned with what was in the box then where it came from Johnny discarded the envelope and instead tore open the package. His eyes grew wide as he beheld what was inside; a copy of Crash Badger 6 special edition and a ten pound bag of candy. For a moment the shear awesomeness of the gift left him in a state of stun, unable to move or think anything except for the desire to enjoy the gift. After the stun faded he was about to open the game when he suddenly realized who the present had to be from; Mary's special trip around town and bailing on Susan was (at least in part) so she could go get Johnny a present.

The idea that maybe there was some explanation left in the card finally occurred to Johnny. As he ripped open the envelope he found a rather generic card with the picture of a young boy and girl dressed up and holding hands on the cover. Inside, written in the same pink pen as on the envelope was a short and simple message.

"For my favorite little brother.

XOXO Mary"

"So, do you like your present?" Johnny heard Mary ask, the blood draining from his face as he suddenly realizing he wasn't alone in his room.


	6. Mary's big plan

Johnny turned his head slowly towards the door, knowing the voice he had just heard wasn't imagined though he wished it was. Getting gifts was fine but Mary was being a bit too nice or at least going about it in a creepy manner. When he caught glimpse of Mary standing by his door, his desire to have his sister be imaginary only increased; no longer dressed in her normal attire Mary had clad herself in a sleek purple dress with a necklace, make up and fancy shoes along with her normal curvy glasses and crescent shaped barrette.

Johnny had only seen Mary dressed this way for two things, formal events and failed attempts to woo Gil. Neither scenario explained her current appearance or the presence in his room though Johnny couldn't help but think that all of this had something to do with yet another futile attempt to win over Gil. After all her bright green eyes were nearly half closed and staring out unblinking and only Gil brought upon that type of reaction in his otherwise calm sister.

Johnny would never admit it but he had wondered for sometime what was wrong with Gil. Sure his sisters were dorks but they were also rather sweet at times. Add to that the number of times both had practically thrown themselves at Gil only to be not rejected so much as more unnoticed. Susan even had the same deep, beautiful blue eyes that Sissy had and they were enough to make Johnny…

Johnny quickly diverted his mind away from such thoughts. Ever since spending the perfect Saturday with Sissy (thanks to his sisters time rewinding alarm clock) Johnny would occasionally find his thoughts slipping into places he'd rather pretend weren't there and visions of Sissy as anything but an annoying neighborhood rival were tops on that list of dangerous mental places.

"So Johnny, do you like the gift? The guy at the store said it was the most popular title." Mary asked, slowly approaching.

"Thanks, but why did you get it for me? Today isn't anything special." Johnny asked, not coming back out of his own thoughts until Mary began to move closer to him.

"A sister can't get her brother a gift just because?" Mary asked somewhat rhetorically.

"You've never before." Johnny replied.

"True but today is a big day for me…" Mary replied, a little annoyed though she had to admit he was correct.

"What's so special about today?" Johnny asked.

"Today is the day I have my first real boyfriend." Mary replied, still inching closer to Johnny.

"I don't get it, some lame-o from your school falls for you so you by me a present? I think you've been spending too much time in the lab."

"Oh, he's not from my school. He's from your school actually." Mary explained, moving a bit closer.

"So, you're dating one of my friends? Which one? Bumper?" Johnny asked, chuckling a bit at his suggestion.

"Not exactly." Mary replied with a timid smile as she took Johnny by the hand.

For a moment Johnny was silent, not sure what Mary was saying.

"Didn't see that coming!" Johnny blurted out, suddenly realizing what Mary was trying to say.


	7. Mary lays it all on the table

Johnny was silent and motionless, unable to wrap his head around what was going on. If he wasn't mistaken Mary seemed to be indicated she had a crush on him. That couldn't be right though, Johnny was sure he had to be wrong. Mary was obsessed with the ever unattainable Gil to the exclusion of anyone else, just like Susan. Neither girl gave even a second passing glance towards another boy. This had to be a simple misunderstanding.

The Gil reason aside, Mary was his sister. Even if she was the prettiest girl in the world (which Johnny was fairly certain she was not) she would be totally off limits. Even the thought of a secret attraction was forbidden and taboo but if it did exist to say it out loud and to the target of ones desire would be…

Johnny had no words to describe such a scenario. He had always assumed such an event would never happen so no time had been spent preparing for it.

Despite the clear signal Mary was sending Johnny felt assured that he must be mistaken; Clearly Mary must be trying to tell him something else.

"I… have no idea what you're talking about." Johnny replied, his voice a bit shaky.

Mary sighed softly, still holding Johnny's hand despite Johnny's discrete attempts to slide his hand free.

"You're the only boy who has ever really been nice to me Johnny. The boys at the technology institute are older and see me as just a little kid whose embarrasses them by being in their school and out performing them. The boys in the neighborhood… unless they're asking where you are they act like I don't exist. Except for the one time we used a lozenge to change Eugene's biochemistry even he doesn't acknowledge me and he's obsessed with my twin sister!" Mary began to explain.

"I'm sorry that the boys you know ignore you but… I still don't see what this has to do with me." Johnny replied, finally pulling his hand free from his sister's grasp.

"You're not like them though Johnny, you don't ignore me."

"Yeah, you're my sister. You live in the same house as me. I see you everyday! We eat dad's terrible dinners together! You use your mad scientist inventions to help me with my problems in exchange for testing things for you. There's no way I could ignore you." Johnny explained.

"I know, and that's why you'd make the perfect boyfriend; We can see each other whenever we want…" Mary began.

"Whether we want to or not!" Johnny interrupted.

"We have a ton in common…" Mary continued.

"Yeah, like relatives and DNA." Johnny again interrupted.

"We can go places together without people making a scene about us being together…"

"Except… like… ohhh Dukey or Susan who would want to know why they're suddenly not included in our events. And everyone else who would start to wonder why we were spending so much time together when we don't normally hang out prior to now!"

"I can help you with your homework so you'll do better in school and have more free time…"

"Ok, that one doesn't sound too horrible." Johnny had to admit.

"I can also make sure Susan doesn't make you test anything too dangerous or unsafe…"

"Ok, that one doesn't sound too bad either but that doesn't make up for the rest…"

"Plus you're actually kind of cute…" Mary said, interrupted Johnny.

"… And we're right back to the gross part again!" Johnny said with a sigh.

"and you have a sort of suave, rebellious 'I don't care what other people think' attitude about you that is so enchanting…" Mary continued, her smile growing as her brain clearly continued to form a mental picture in her mind of her little brother that was far from the one Johnny had always thought she had.

"Mary, listen," Johnny began, deciding an uncharacteristically high degree of tact was needed to deal with Mary in her current condition, afraid that if he wasn't careful his now strangely acting sister might flip out completely on him, "You're a sweet girl and just like I said last night I don't understand why guys ignore you. I mean, you shouldn't have them waiting in line but there should be at least a few dorky guys trying to get your affection. I'm sure if you give it some time you'll find that there are guys that pay attention to you and you'll realize all this was just a silly misunderstanding."

Though a bit harsh, for Johnny the last bit of comfort was surprisingly mature. Johnny was sure that Mary would blush, admit how embarrassed she was, admit he was right and politely leave the room… and leave Johnny alone with his new game and mountain of candy.

As was often the case, Johnny was wrong.

"Look, let me put this to you another way," Mary said as she snapped out of her daydream and grabbed Johnny's hand with an unbreakable grip, "I LIKE you, you LIKE me and you ARE going to be my first real boyfriend."

For a second the look in Mary's eyes was truly terrifying. Usually it was Susan who had emotional freak out but even Susan had never been like this.

And as suddenly as it came, the look is Mary's eyes disappeared and the gentle, caring sister appeared again.

"Look, I know today as been a long day and maybe this has all taken you a bit by surprise. I had hoped we could go out and do something together but maybe it would be best if we took things slow. I know no one else is home; Since the hovercraft was completely fueled up and the butcher is all the way downtown Susan and Dukey won't be back anytime soon and Mom and Dad won't be home for a few hours so I'm going to change into something more relaxed, go make some popcorn and watch some television. Why don't you take a few moments to collect yourself and then we can spend some cuddle time on the couch." Mary suggested with a big smile, suggesting it as if she saw no reason why Johnny would possibly disapprove of her suggestion.

In a bit of shock Johnny sat frozen as Mary exited his room, her footsteps softly echoing down the hallway towards the room she and Susan shared.

As Johnny blinked, drawing himself back to reality he could help remember what Dukey had said earlier that morning at the bus stop about how if he wasn't careful things could get creepy and weird.

"You know, for a dog Dukey understands human girls WAY better then I ever will!" Johnny mumbled to himself.


	8. A temporary setback

It wasn't hard for Johnny to avoid Mary's little setup. Sure it had taken him ten minutes of pacing back and forth in his room before the obvious dawned on him but the simple solution did finally come to… or at least a partial solution.

All Johnny needed to do was not go downstairs. Mary had clearly planned on the two of them being alone so as long as he stayed locked in his room until someone (Mom, Dad, Susan, Dukey, Mr. Black, Mr. White, Bling Bling, hell he'd even be happy to see Sissy) arrived at the house. Mary certainly wasn't going to do anything while others were around.

As luck would have it Johnny's father wasn't gone as long as Mary had believed and within 20 minutes the sound of their fathers voice signaled Johnny's freedom; he had to stay in his room until school let out so no one got suspicious but after what had just happened that seemed a small price to pay.

Things were awkward around the house for the rest of the day, dinner time especially. Johnny was more then pleased to finish his food quickly (even eating the vegetables without complaint) so as to get away from Mary's doey gaze. As soon as dinner was over Johnny politely excused himself from the table and made a bee-line for his bedroom so he could "hit the hay." Though everyone thought Johnny was acting strange, only Mary knew why. The rest of the Test family simply assumed maybe Johnny was sick.

"It looks like you were pretty successful today while I was gone." Mary said playfully. Her tone was forced but she suspected her sister wouldn't notice.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I got the Ultra Dream Machine working. It would have been nice to have had your help today but I made due by myself." Susan replied, letting a bit of her emotions show. She was very unused to not having Mary around and had spent a lonely afternoon without her.

"I think we should test the new dream machine tonight." Mary suggested.

"I concur. I've already testing the output for safety concerns so I'm confident it's safe enough for real world testing. I suggest we try it out on Lolo tonight and review the tape of her sleep in the morning." Susan stated, less suggesting and more telling her sister what she was going to do rather then asking for her input.

"You said it's safe though, right? So why not go straight to human trials?" Mary asked, sounding a bit fidgety. She had hoped to get the lab to herself as the plan she thought up over dinner would require a degree of secrecy.

"I think it would be better if we started with Lolo and then…" Susan began before being cut off.

"You know that trying to figure out what Lolo dreamed about would be nearly impossible. If we use it on, oh lets say Johnny, we can find out tomorrow how well it worked." Mary suggested, her voice sterner and more commanding then normal.

"Well, I guess but won't Johnny be angry that we tested something without telling him?"

"We just won't tell him."

"But, won't we have to if we want to find out if the machine worked?"

"No, we just set the machine so that…"

"Girls, bed time!" Mary and Susan both heard their father yell from down in the living room.

"Coming!" Susan replied.

"We just set the target to 'Johnny' and the subject to me and Johnny well surely tell me about the weird dream he had tomorrow since I'm in it." Mary explained, forcing a non sinister smile.

"That might work." Susan said with nod as she adjusted the knobs on the machine to: Target: Johnny Test Mode: random imagery Subject: Mary Test.

"I said bed time girls!" Their father shouted again since the girls clearly hadn't responded.

"We're coming right now!" Mary shouted back, pleased as she saw Susan set the dials. With a swift hand she grasped onto Susan's shoulder, "We should really get going before dad comes up and checks on what we're doing."

"Good point. Sleep tight Lolo!" Susan said with a yawn as she stood up, "I'm exhausted so I should probably get some sleep anyway."

"Yeah, me too!" Mary said, her smile widening as she discreetly slid her hand off Susan's shoulder and over to the middle knob on the dream machine, twisted it all the way to full.

As the girls left and locked the lab behind them the settings on the machine now read…

Target: Johnny Test Mode: full power Subject: Mary Test … **Warning**: Full power may cause unintended side effects in some subjects including but not limited too nightmares, sleep walking, dry mouth and vivid or wet dreams.


	9. Johnny's crazy dreams

It had been a hell of a night for Johnny; the ordinary calm night's sleep he normally experienced had been replaced by a series of incredibly dreams. Some were pleasant, even wonderful while some were utterly terrifying. Since so much of Johnny's day had revolved around Mary he wasn't surprised every dream involved her some how or another.

As his eyes slowly opened, he let out a loud, long yawn as he stretched out his arms. As the first few moments of conciseness passed Johnny took the time to review some of the dreams from that night.

The night had begun with a terrible nightmare in which he and Mary were the last survivors of a zombie apocalypse that had overrun Porkbelly. No matter where he turned they found more and more zombies drooling to eat their brains. To make matters worse Mary was absolutely no help, turning into a shivering, nervous wreck every time a zombie was in sight. He had considered leaving her behind several times but each time he thought about it he couldn't bring himself to do it. She was his sister after all.

After waking up in a sweet from his zombie dream Johnny fell into a science fiction dream. He was the captain of a starship with Dukey as his first officer and Susan as his science officer. They were responding to an alien distress call… an alien species that turned out to be little green people ruled over by a scantly clad alien version of Mary.

The starship dream eventually faded, transforming ultimately into a cryptic image dream. It was almost as if he were living through his own version of Alice in wonderland with a feline Mary playing the role of the Cheshire cat.

The most intense dream was the last one of the night. It had been perhaps the most vivid dream Johnny had ever experienced. Despite the creepy content it had been strangely enjoyable, leaving Johnny to relive it slowly in his mind.

The dream began with Johnny in his room, in bed. He awoke to the sound of a creaking board and a shadow lurking by his bedroom window. Near his bed he could barely make out the alarm clock, showing the time being sometime after 3 AM. At first Johnny was afraid the creeping shadow was a zombie, having secured himself in his room at the end of the first nightmare. When the shadow moved closer and Johnny could make out Mary clad in her pink nightgown with the blue crescent moon his eyes began to dart around the room in search of undead intruders (as the zombie uprising had occurred late at night causing both Johnny and Mary to have been dressed only in their pajamas while they fled the undead horde).

"Mary, what the hell are you doing? You know those zombies can sense heat and movement! Get away from the window before they see you. Hurry, get under the covers with me. The blanket will cover up our body heat." Johnny ordered Mary, who appeared just as shell shocked and confused as she had during the first nightmare.

After a few seconds Mary came to her senses and rushed to her little brothers bed, lifting up the covers and moving up next to him as Johnny slid over to make room. His bed was small, leaving no personal space for either of them. To be able to hide from the zombies they would both have to be close together, prompting Johnny to wrap an arm around Mary and draw her close to him the moment she was in his bed.

Johnny was a bit surprised when Mary kissed him on the cheek, but as he had just saved his terrified sister from the undead Johnny assumed it was just a girly way of thanking him. Both Mary and Susan were girls afterall and did on occasion lose their scientific edge and get all mushy. As Johnny pulled the covers up over their heads he felt Mary readjust, placing her head on Johnny's chest.

"I've never been this close to a boy before. Your body feels so warm and comforting." Mary cooed, slowly sliding one of her hands under Johnny's pajama top, rubbing it against his chest and stomach. Though not cold, Mary's hand felt cool against his skin, sending a shiver through his body.

"I've never had a girl this close to me before either." Johnny replied, blushing a bit though neither of them could possibly see it under the covers.

"This might sound rude but I'm glad to hear that. I like the idea that neither one of us has any experience dealing with boys or girls. It makes me feel… safer." Mary whispered, her hand warming up against Johnny's skin.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Johnny asked, his demanding question coming out with more of a whimper as he felt Mary's hand move effortlessly down his chest and stomach before her fingers slid under the waist of his pajama bottoms. The warmth of Mary's hand blanked Johnny's mind, completely removing any fear or thoughts of zombies.

"I'm sorry, I was just curious I guess." Mary whispered, her face blushing as she slowly began to retract her fingers.

"No, its okay. You just caught me off guard." Johnny replied, placing his hand momentary on top of Mary's to stop her from retracting her hand any further. He wasn't really sure why the part of his brain that would normally had told him to stop her was over shadowed by a second voice screaming about how strangely good her touch felt.

"Are… Are you sure?" Mary asked, knowing full well that the answer was yes since Johnny had physically stopped her hand.

"Yeah." Johnny replied, not able to say anything more then that one word.

"Mom and Dad put a block on our computer so… I've just never seen what a boy is like…" Mary whispered, feeling a need to explain herself despite Johnny's permission and loosened grip.

"Yeah, they did the same to me." Johnny replied, managing a few more words this time.

"If you want… I'll help you find out what a girl is like." Mary whispered, this time because she was unable to find the strength to make such a suggestion any louder.

"Ahhh… ok." Johnny whispered back, completely taken off guard. After a moment of neither moving Johnny felt Mary's other hand grab one of his and gently guide it up beneath her nightgown.

Mary's skin felt soft and warm, much gentler then Johnny had ever imagined despite the years of being told about girls being "soft and gentle" (Something about Sissy had made Johnny unwilling to believe that a girl could be anything besides a rough and tumble tomboy . After a few seconds of trailing up her stomach Johnny felt his sister's hand guide his finger, cupping the soft, tiny mounds that Johnny quickly realized where her breasts. They were small but definitely present and up close they seemed much more developed then he would have guessed from simply seeing her in her normal clothes.

"Do you like how that feels?" Mary whispered, a note of desperate desire for approval leaking into her voice despite the wonderfully powerful sensation of being touched for the first time.

"Yeah, it feels amazing." Johnny replied, a bit overcome by the whole experience.

"You're not just saying that right?" Mary asked, wanting as much assurance as she could get.

"No, I mean it. They feel great."

"Good." Mary replied softly, believing her little brother as she felt his hands squeeze and rub first one breast and then the other, "Can I explore you too?"

"I don't think my chest is as exciting as yours." Johnny replied, sounding foolish due to his sincerity.

"True, but then I guess I can jump further down the list then." Mary said deviously as she slid a hand down Johnny's stomach and into his underwear.

"Whoa!" Johnny cried out abruptly as Mary's warm hand grazed across his penis, which had been half hard from the moment this dream started.

"Shhhh!" Mary whispered, "We don't want to wake anyone."

"Be careful down there!" Johnny replied, an unusually demanding and authoritative tone in his voice that caused Mary to immediately retract her hand.

"Of course, I'm sorry." Mary whispered, her low voice making clear the true degree of knowledge she lacked regarding boys, "I didn't hurt you did I?"

While Mary didn't have any desire to hurt Johnny (believing that acting on her incestuous desires towards him were acts of love and kindness rather then bizarre and distressing) she did like the strong and commanding tone it brought out in him. For a second she forgot that it was her throwing herself at her little brother and not the other way around.

"No," Johnny replied honestly, realizing how what he said could have scared Mary.

"Then you don't mind if I continue, as long as I promise to be careful?" Mary asked, a mixture of literally asking the question as well as some playfulness as well.

"I guess, as long I get to do the same." Johnny replied as he felt his sister's hand begin to sneak below his waste again.

"You want to explore me?" Mary asked, beaming though in the dark no could see it. Mary was thrilled with her brother's request, seeing it as the first time he showed actual interest in her rather then just passively responding.

"It seems only fair." Johnny replied, reducing Mary's excitement somewhat with his lack of strength in his reply.

Johnny heard a bit of rustling followed by the sound of something soft cutting through the air before suddenly realizing that the hand that Mary had guided up her nightgown no longer felt the cool, soft fabric against the back of his hand.

"Did… did you just take off your clothes?" Johnny asked, feeling his cock grow to full strength and size from the thought of Mary naked.

"Just my nightgown. Maybe you want to help me with my panties?" Mary replied in her best attempt at a seductive voice, before taking her brothers hands and guided both of them down her body until she could feel his fingertips pressed against the elastic waist of her panties.

The rest of the dream was a bit blurry, his mind having been so overloaded with details. Despite being just a dream Johnny was surprised his dream had taken such a direction. He had sat through a few lectures at school about "the big subject" but since the projector had been broken that day the lecture had been given without any pictures so Johnny had a hard time staying focused through out the day despite the topic. He remembered hearing something about boys having intense and explicit dreams but up until the previous night he had never experienced one… or at least one he remembered.

Johnny tried his best to shake the strange dreams from his mind, the hunger building in his stomach helping to clear the cobwebs out of his brain. Anxious to get downstairs and find some breakfast Johnny tossed back the covers to his bed and began to slide out of bed when his foot knocked something onto the ground.

Johnny looked at the item confused as he reached down and picked it up. It was a white pair of underwear, he quickly deduced, but much too soft though to be one of his own. He stared wide eyed and mouth hanging open once he abruptly noticed the blue crescent moon embroidered delicately into the front of the panties.


	10. realization and breakfast

Johnny knew the first dream was just a dream; there had been no zombie apocalypse.

Johnny knew the second dream was just a dream; he had been to space before and had met alien life but not as the captain of a starship and they weren't little green men.

Johnny knew the third dream was just a dream; wonderland was simply too strange of a place to be anything besides a dream.

The final dream of the night… what had at the time felt like the greatest (and possibly most unsettling) dream of his life was now painted in brand new colors. It had been in his room, where he was sleeping. It had involved only himself and Mary with no unrealistic characters or settings. It had felt so intense. It had felt so real.

Holding his sisters panties in his hands brought the crashing realization into focus: it had felt so real because it had been real.

Sensing Dukey was beginning to stir Johnny darted his eyes about his bedroom, spotting his backpack lying on the floor beside his bed. Being the closest hiding spot Johnny quickly stashed Mary's panties into his backpack and sealed it up. Dukey was his best friend and Johnny needed his wisdom now more then ever but at the same time if Dukey found Mary's panties there would be… uncomfortable questions to answer. Uncomfortable not just because of what had happened late the previous night but also because of how willing Johnny had been at the time to join Mary in her nocturnal mischief.

"So, did you sleep well last night because I slept like a log!" Dukey said, stretching his legs out and yawning like a dog.

"Ah, yeah… I slept great. So great in fact that I'm starving. Race ya down stairs!" Johnny replied, leaping out of bed and making a dash for the bedroom door knowing Dukey would likely not be far behind.

*A moment later*

Johnny was surprised to find he was the last one to the breakfast table (besides Dukey who was hot on his tail). Johnny plopped down into his seat before noticing Mary was standing next to the stove with six plates and what looked like a cross between a ray gun and a skillet.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked, looking first at Mary and then to his parents.

"The girls wanted to try out their new pancake making device so Mary offered to make breakfast." Johnny's mom replied.

"I call it the 'Lightspeed pancake machine!'" Susan announced to no one in particular, "By using nano-wave technology the LPM can produce perfect pancakes in mere seconds and can even create multiple orders of custom pancakes for multiple taste preferences."

"Blueberry pancakes for Mom;" Mary stated as she pointed the ray at one plate before moving on to the next in sequence, "Buttermilk for Dad. Strawberry for Susan and me and chocolate chip for Johnny. It even produces special steak flavored pancakes for Dukey."

As she stated each type of pancake they materialized on the plate before Mary gracefully set them in front of the appropriate person. As Mary placed the last plate on the floor for Dukey Johnny grabbed for the maple syrup and was about to pour when he noticed something odd. As Mary took her seat at the table she gave a quick smile and glance at Johnny before receiving complements for both of her parents.

"These pancakes taste delicious Mary!" Their father stated.

"Yes, you girls have really got something with this invention." Their mother added, "Don't you think so Johnny?"

"What? Oh yeah, they're great." Johnny replied, not paying any attention as he abruptly squeezed a massive sum of syrup onto his pancakes.

"That's enough syrup Johnny." Their father criticized, "You don't need to get that hyper this early in the morning."

Though maple syrup was delicious, it wasn't the taste that made Johnny pour so much but rather the message Mary had written with chocolate chips on his top pancake.

"Want 2 ditch skol & C a movie? Meet me corner." The pancake had read, the message barely fitting in the space even with the abbreviations.


	11. At the bus stop again

Johnny felt strange actually wanting to go to school. Usually he wanted nothing more then to spend the day at home paying tinymon or going to park but today was different; today school would be the only safe place for Johnny to hide from Mary. He needed more time to process what was going on. Things had happened so fast. Two days ago his life was normal (relatively speaking) and now… now he had to figure out how to deal with deal a sister whose creepy romantic crush on their neighbor had in fact transferred over to him. He didn't want to hurt Mary's feelings, she was his sister after all and a bit more emotionally unstable then Johnny had ever imagined. There had to be a way to get her to back off without destroying her heart or making her snap and use a crazy invention to either kill him or make him love her.

After finishing breakfast Johnny began a slow walk out the front door and towards the bus stop. He didn't want to admit it but the little voice that wanted to spare his sisters feelings was not the only little voice wrestling for control of his mind. Despite how creepy it had been waking up and realizing that his dream with Mary had been real he couldn't deny how wonderful the "dream" had felt. It wasn't just the physical component that was distracting him though. On some level it felt good having Mary chasing after him. He liked the idea of having a girl care so much about him even if it was someone he grew up with.

"You haven't been listening to a word I've been saying, have you?" Dukey asked Johnny as they approached the bus stop.

"What? Oh, sorry… My mind was somewhere else." Johnny replied.

"You've seemed a little spaced out all morning. Why don't you tell me what's up?" Dukey suggested.

"I don't think so… it's just too weird." Johnny replied.

"Oh come on, you can tell me. We're best friends… compadres, amigos… You can tell me anything."

"I think this might be the exception to that…"

"Come on, spill it! You'll feel better."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course."

"And you promise you won't laugh?"

"Of course."

"And you promise you won't tell ANYONE?"

"Of course… I mean, who could I tell? Your sisters are the only ones who know I can talk. Plus who would believe a rumor from 'the kid with the weird hair disorder?'"

"Alright…" Johnny said with a sigh before taking a long breath, "So it turns out that Mary was buying that video game for me yesterday and I'm pretty sure she faked the flyer for the butcher shop so she could get me all alone so she could tell me that she has a crush on me."

"Right…" Dukey replied, trying to hold back his laughter, "Are you sure you're not just misinterpreting this? I mean, maybe she bought you the game as a present for being nice to her… girls do that sometimes you know?"

"Nooooo… no no no… I am totally not misinterpreting this! Plus you said you wouldn't laugh!"

"Sorry. Why are you so certain?"

"Because she told me yesterday she wanted to have some private "snuggle time" on the couch while watching TV."

"Ok, I'll admit that sounds weird but I don't think that constitutes proof she has a crush on you."

"Oh yeah, well she hid a message in my pancakes this morning asking if I wanted to go see a movie with her!"

"Again, maybe she's just trying to be friendly. You know, or maybe she's trying to butter you up for some new, horrible experiment."

"She promised to protect me from any of Susan's dangerous experiments if I went out with her!"

"Ok, that's hard to explain." Dukey admitted.

"Plus," Johnny said before sighing again, "She snuck into my room last night and I thought I was dreaming and… umm… things happened."

"What kind of things? And where was I when all this happened? Mars?" Dukey asked, not believing Johnny's crazy story.

"You were there… just asleep."

"Oh I call bull on that! If anything had happened I would have woken up! It was just a dream."

"No, I thought it was a dream too but I know it wasn't now."

"Oh yeah? How do you know for certain?" Dukey asked, still appropriately skeptical.

For a third time in only a moment Johnny sighed before reaching into his backpack, "I found these in my bed this morning."

Dukey's jaw dropped as he looked at the delicate, girly undergarment Johnny produced from his bag.

"Please tell me you just broke into her room and stole those so you could play a joke on me. Please tell me that's what's going on."

"Sorry." Johnny replied, "You demanded to know what was wrong."

"I didn't expect this though!"

"Yeah, neither did I."

"What are you going to do about this?"

Spotting the bus approaching from down the street, Johnny quickly shoved his sister's panties back into his backpack. As the bus grew closer, Johnny grew less and less certain he'd be able to stand a whole day of school thinking about what he should do.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do… deal with this right now!" Johnny spouted as he jumped head first into some nearby bushes.

"You're going to deal with this by hiding in the bushes? Great plan!" Dukey said sarcastically.

"No, I'm going to skip school and have a talk with Mary."

As he watched the bus stop and then drive by Johnny wondered to himself which would win: the voice telling him to tell the truth and tell Mary she needed to back off or the voice telling him to tell the truth and tell Mary he wanted to be with her.


	12. Turning a corner

Having escaped the bus, Johnny hopped out of the bushes and headed down the street to a corner far from his home.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? Moral support?" Dukey asked.

"Yeah, I think this would be less awkward by myself." Johnny replied.

At ten minutes of waiting Johnny was just about to leave when Mary finally arrived, dressed in her normal attire.

"I wasn't sure if you were going to show up." Mary said softly.

"I wasn't sure either." Johnny replied.

"I'm glad you did." Mary said with sweet, flirty little smile.

"We need to talk…" Johnny began, finding it hard to look Mary in the eye so instead gazed down at his shoes.

Mary knew Johnny's talk wasn't going to go anywhere good so before he could even begin she interrupted, attempting to change his mind before he could say anything he couldn't take back.

"It's Cissy, isn't it? You two are secretly dating, right? You can tell me, I'll understand." Mary suggested.

"What? No… no!"

"But you like her, right?" Mary asked relieved Johnny hadn't jumped at the first bit of bait.

"I guess she's alright… sort of."

"I meant like LIKE."

"No, not at all!" Johnny replied, lying a bit rather then admitting his feelings to Mary.

"So, another girl at school then?" Mary asked.

"No, there is no girl at school. I don't have a girlfriend!" Johnny insisted, a bit annoyed with his sister for highjacking his conversation.

"Do you like girls?" Mary asked.

"I guess… wait, what do you mean?"

"I mean, if you had to go let's say on a romantic date would you rather go with a girl or a boy?"

"I'd rather go by myself."

"That's not an option. A boy or a girl?"

"Romantic date like holding hands and kissing kind of stuff?"

"Yeah, basically."

"A girl then I guess."

"So you like girls and don't have a girlfriend or someone at school or in the neighborhood you want to make your girlfriend. Am I correct?"

Johnny could already tell this wasn't going anywhere good.

"Mary, we need to talk…" Johnny said, trying to move the conversation back to something he could control.

"Answer the question!" Mary demanded, the fire filling her green eyes scaring Johnny into answering.

"Yeah, you're right." Johnny replied, terrified having now seen his sister freak out twice in two days.

"So, I don't see what the problem is then." Mary said, calming down substantially, "You like girls, you're not attached to someone, you said I was cute and that you didn't understand why guys didn't go after me, I'm single, and I think we both enjoyed last night. Give me one good reason why we shouldn't be a couple!"

"You're my sister." Johnny replied meekly, finding Mary's argument and his hard to juxtapose.

"So what?"

"Isn't that enough?" Johnny asked, feelings his own determination slowly slipping away.

"Why should it be? So what if you're my little brother? That just means I love you even more! We already know each other, we have lots in common, we can be together whenever we want."

Mary was basically rehashing the same argument Johnny had rejected the day before but after all the dreams and mixed emotions from the previous night his willingness to fight was quickly dissolving.

"How bout this… One date, today… we play it by ear. If things go well, we can be a couple but if not then not. Alright?" Johnny suggested.

"Wonderful!" Mary cried with unconcealed glee as she threw her arms around Johnny's neck and planted a long, deep kiss on his lips. Earlier Johnny would have found this creepy but this time around Mary's longing kiss seemed more… pleasant.


	13. Susan the spy

Susan could tell right away that the Mary she found waiting in their mother's car for their morning ride to the technology institute wasn't the real Mary. It was amazing that neither parent ever noticed when one of the girls replaced themselves with a hologram. Being the second day in a row of weird behavior, Susan decided to locate Mary and figure out what was going on though not until mom had dropped Susan and the Mary hologram off and was safely out of the way. Though she needed to know what was going on Susan had no desire to rat on Mary… at least not yet.

Susan never had much concern for the safety or privacy of others, this being overtly apparent in the number of times the girls experimented on Johnny and even the occasions, rare as they may be, when Susan would secretly experiment on her sister. In fact, if Mary wasn't around to keep Susan on the up and up Johnny would likely be dead due to Susan's overzealous desire for results. With that in mind it was surprising Mary didn't think to check herself regularly; if she did she would have noticed the little tracking device Susan had hidden in Mary's crescent moon barrette while Mary had been showering the previous night. Susan knew Mary would be boiling mad if she discovered the little bug but she was unwilling to let Mary disappear twice in two days without a trace.

Susan was shocked when she activated the tracking receiver and plotted Mary's location.

"She's skipping school to go see a movie?" Susan ranted to herself, "And without me! I'll see what she's up to!"

With the help of a pair of ultra powered rocket skates (an outdated projected the girls had almost forgotten about in their school locker) Susan made it to the theater in only a few minutes. After positioning herself on a bench across the street from the theater Susan produced a pair of Z-Ray binoculars so as to spy on her sister through the theater walls.

"Are you serious? She ditched school for a monster movie?" Susan mumbled to herself as she sighted the werewolf on the screen, "and a B-rated one at that! This doesn't make any sense."

It took a moment of panning the theater to find Mary, eventually sighting the tip of her crescent moon over her seat.

"There you are!" Susan whispered to herself as she focused the sight to see through the chair, "Oh what the hell? She skipped out on school to see a monster movie… WITH JOHNNY? That makes even less sense!"

Within seconds of spotting the two Susan began to chuckle as she watched Mary's antics.

"What a baby! She's afraid of a low budget werewolf? Oh, I'm a super genius scientist but I scream and cower and grab onto my little brother for protection from a movie monster." Susan mumbled to herself, mocking her sister.

It took a few moments for Susan to realize things were stranger then she at first assumed. She scanned the rest of the theater slowly, noting only three other people at this early showing. By the time she returned her sighting to Mary and Johnny's seats she swiftly noticed Johnny's arm now wrapped around Mary while her head rested against his shoulder. Susan counted off the seconds to see how long it would take Mary to shove Johnny off of her but stopped counting after 30.

"That's just gross!" Susan grumbled to herself, "If those two are going to be weird like that I'm glad they didn't invite me."

Susan remained focused, watching her siblings from across the street as the film stretched on. The movie was lame and predictable (even if Susan couldn't hear any of the sound) but both Johnny and Mary seemed to enjoy it. Despite all the cuddling and hand holding Susan didn't process this shared movie as anything too important until the end of the film.

With the monster defeated, the werewolf hunter had successfully saved the lost camper. The last scene ended with the buff, dirt splattered werewolf hunter and the beautiful camper locking lips in a passionate kiss just before fading to black. Despite not being able to hear what was going on Susan inserted herself mentally into the movie with Gil as the valiant werewolf hunter.

As the credits began to roll Susan pulled herself out of her daydream with just enough time to spot Johnny and Mary pulling back from a long kiss.


	14. and then there were three

Susan couldn't accept what she had witnessed. The evidence was overwhelming (sneaking around, skipping school, going to a movie with Johnny, being so grabby, and most of all their kiss) but Susan couldn't accept the obvious answer. She also couldn't confront her siblings or at least not yet. She needed to be absolutely certain there was no other explanation before confronting Mary and Johnny so when the two exited the theater Susan made sure to be hidden behind a dumpster in a nearby alley.

"Really? Can't this city have any non-disgusting places to hide?" Susan muttered to herself as she leaned out from behind the dumpster, making sure not to touch the sticky blue goop dripping down the side of the metal.

"I gotta say, I wasn't sure I was going to like that movie but I ended up really enjoying it." Mary said softly as the two exited the theater.

"Yeah, it was pretty awesome." Johnny replied, "You seemed really scared when the wolfman jumped out of the tree. You practically jumped into my lap."

"Yeah, it was pretty scary." Mary said with a soft smile as she gently reached for Johnny's hand.

"Whoa…" Johnny said with a note of surprise in his voice, "In public? I mean, I like you and all but what if someone we know sees us? Won't that be a little hard to explain?"

For a second Mary was miffed at Johnny's refusal but Johnny's "… I like you…" was enough to make up for it.

"Oh, calm down. Everyone we know is in school or at work right now. Who could possibly see us?" Mary asked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Johnny admitted before briskly grabbing Mary's soft hand.

"It's almost lunch time," Mary said with a bright smile as she felt the warmth of Johnny's hand against hers, "We could go grab a bite."

It was nearly impossible for Susan to read Mary's lips and from where she was standing all she could see of Johnny was the back of his head. When the two headed down the sidewalk though Susan could easily make out the two holding hands without even using her binoculars.

"Oh that's enough of this." Susan said as she exited the alley and made a bee line for her siblings. Approaching from behind Susan caught both Johnny and Mary off guard when she shouted "What the heck is going on here?"

Both Johnny and Mary recognized the voice without needing to turn around and see Susan. Both also could tell the mood she was in. Johnny froze, not moving or blinking and barely breathing as Mary slowly let go of Johnny's hand (primarily because Johnny wouldn't turn around with her rather then out of embarrassment) and turned to face her sister.

With a fake smile Mary decided to try and back Susan off, "What do you mean? We were just going to get lunch after a movie. If you want you can join us."

Mary didn't want Susan to come with them but she hoped that if she offered Susan would decline.

"No, I don't want to go get lunch with you if you two are going to act in the restaurant like you did in the theater!" Susan replied, accusing both without giving any details.

"What do you mean?" Mary asked, figuring that somehow Susan had been spying on them but wanted to see if Susan would say it out loud.

"Don't play dumb with me sister! I saw how you two were acting in the theater… all clingy and kissy and… gross." Susan replied, gagging a bit as she described what she saw.

"Susan, really…. Maybe we should talk about this once you've calmed down some…" Mary suggested, still forcing a smile though it was proving harder and harder to maintain.

"I AM CALM!" Susan screamed.

With Susan drawing attention to the three of them Mary could no longer keep up her false pleasantries regarding her sister's sudden arrival.

"Listen and listen good because I'm only going to say this once," Mary began, stepping up to Susan to the point where their shoes touched so she could speak softly enough to prevent anyone outside their group from hearing what she had to say, "You're my sister and I love you and I always will but I am FUCKING tired of chasing after some boy we both know will never even acknowledge either one of us exist. If you want to keep chasing Gil then go right ahead, heck you even have a fall back guy in case you finally get bored of fighting a futile battle. I don't have those options and you know what, I don't want them. There's been a boy all along who has been nice to me and is a great match and he's been right in front of my face…"

"But he's our brother!" Susan interrupted.

"And you know what, I don't care! He's cute and funny and exciting and best of all he LIKES me! Who cares if he's our brother? Is it bad because people say it's bad? Is it bad because mom and dad would be mad if they found out? So what? How many times have we all done things that were 'wrong' and got mom and dad mad? You think people would approve of a talking dog with super kung-fu skills?"

"But…" Susan began, but stopped not really sure how to respond. The strength of her argument came from the simple idea that what Mary was doing was wrong but Mary had preemptively defeated that argument.

"Let's cut the point that you don't want to admit." Mary said, leaning in closer so that now even Johnny couldn't hear, "You're most upset that I have someone and you don't. For once in your life you're jealous of me and you don't know how to take it."

Susan said nothing in response, simply staring vacantly as Mary backed up towards Johnny.

"We're going to go get some pizza for lunch. If you want to apologize for spying on us you can find us there." Mary informed her sister as she grabbed Johnny's hand, now smiling sincerely. Never before had she ever left her sister speechless and despite feeling bad for Susan Mary couldn't help but enjoy the sensation of success.


	15. back against the wall

It was a nice day and still rather early so Mary and Johnny had gotten their lunch and had found a spot out on the pizzeria's patio to enjoy the scenery.

"What do you think Susan is going to do?" Johnny asked before taking a bite of his slice of pizza. His date with Mary hadn't seemed like such a bad idea earlier but the moment he heard Susan's accusing voice he actually realized how difficult the little scenario he was in really was. Being close to his sister Mary was something he wanted to give a chance but tearing his family apart was quite a cost to pay for the opportunity at the taboo.

"Oh, she's just high strung right now but I'm sure she'll get over it." Mary replied, taking a sip of her soda.

"Are you sure because she seemed more then just a bit high strung. She seemed…" Johnny replied, trailing off without being able to adequately describe Susan.

"I believe the term you've used to describe her before was 'manic.' I'll admit she did seem more then just high strung but she'll get over it. Trust me; I've been her constant companion for our whole lives. If anyone knows her it's me." Mary said with a reassuring smile.

"Well, you do know her best. I just hope you're right. I don't want to explain this to mom and dad." Johnny replied. Her smile was so reassuring and… alluring. Johnny had never noticed before right then how adorable Mary's gentle smiles were. There was so much about her that until the last few days had been in plain sight and yet had skipped his attention.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'm certain there is no way Susan will tell mom and dad about us. She'd never do it." Mary reassured Johnny.

"I'll make sure she doesn't cause me any trouble!" Mary thought to herself. She had assumed that she would have weeks before Susan figured out anything was going on between her and Johnny. She had been counting on that time.

Truth be told Mary was no where near as sure regarding what Susan would do with her new found knowledge as she tried to lead Johnny to believe. She knew Susan wouldn't go right to there parents, instead making at least one or two more attempts to reason with Mary before doing something drastic. She had assumed she would have time to finishing properly preparing her 'safety net' before having to implement it but now things would have to be rushed.

Mary and Johnny were seated outside for roughly ten minutes before Mary spotted Susan approaching the restaurant. She had assumed Susan would never apologize, especially so quickly after catching them but as Susan approached Mary could make out an unhappy look on her face… one similar to the one she made whenever she had to say something she didn't want to say.

Mary motioned towards Susan, alerting Johnny to their sister's approach.

"Should… should we go?" Johnny asked.

"No, let's hear what she has to say. This ought to be good." Mary replied, giving Johnny a reassuring glance. It took Susan five minutes to reach her siblings, clearly taking her time in the approach. During the whole time Mary tried to sooth Johnny's nerves with reassuring looks and holding his hand under the table but when Susan made it to the table Johnny still looked worried.

"You don't really need to apologize sis," Mary told Susan as she pulled a third seat up to the little table, "I know you feel bad for being so rude back there. I'm sure you were just taken by…"

"I'm not here to apologize." Susan interrupted Mary's smug attempt to both be the better person and rub it in at the same time.

"What do you mean?" Mary asked, taken off guard by Susan's response. She could feel Johnny's grip on her hand tighten as Susan spoke.

"Exactly what I said, I'm not here to apologize. What you're doing is wrong and I won't let you two do this." Susan explained, "I won't tell mom and dad about this right now but if I see even one little hint of you two being creepy romantic EVER again I won't hesitate to tell on both of you."

"No worries, we totally aren't going to do anything creepy or romantic again. That was a one time thing and you were right… it was creepy and gross." Johnny replied, not even waiting a full second to agree to Susan's demands.

Johnny's words caused a tightness in Mary's chest, making it hard for her to breath. It took a full half a minute for the sensation of daggers ripping apart her heart to pass though to Mary it felt so much longer.

"He doesn't really mean that," Mary thought to herself, each phrase echoing in her mind as ideas and plans began to churn in her over powered brain. Each plan and each idea loosened her breath bit by bit, "He's just saying that so Susan… that evil, heartless, soulless, careless, BITCH of a sister won't tell mom and dad and ruin what we can have together. She's only doing this because she doesn't want me to have anything she can't have…He probably already knows I have a plan to deal with this… yes he does, I can see it in his eyes…. Those beautiful blue eyes begging me to make this right… don't worry Johnny, your big sis is going to make this all better!"

"Yeah, you're right. We'll stop." Mary added, forcing a smile.

Johnny relaxed once Mary finally spoke. At first when she was silent after Susan threatened to out them he was afraid Mary was going to do something foolish. Dukey's warning about having to be careful with Mary repeated over and over in his head, seeming more and more accurate as the seconds ticked by.

If either girl had the power to force him to be honest, Johnny knew he'd have to admit that his encounters with Mary weren't gross. He had enjoyed getting closer to her and was even beginning to like the idea of an extended relationship with her. However strong his desires for Mary were they were no where near as strong as his fear over Susan outing them.

"Good." Susan said with a sigh, relieved that she didn't have to cause permanent damage to the relationship with her sister (and best friend), "I'm glad we can all put this behind us."

"Yeah." Johnny said, sighing as well.

"Yeah." Mary replied, also sighing though out of sadness rather then relief.

"Since we're all ditching school today maybe we could go to…" Susan began.

"Yeah, I don't think so. I think I need to take a walk." Mary interrupted.

"I can come with you if you want?" Susan suggested.

"No thanks, I think I need a little 'Mary time' right now." Mary explained as she pushed away from the table.

Mary smiled at her siblings before slowly walking away from the restaurant, making sure to shuffle her feet and stare at the ground as she headed down the block, taking the first turn she could down a nearby alley. Once out of sight she increased her speed, aiming to get back home and into her lab as quickly as possible.


	16. A happy, functional family

"Things were so perfect when we were on the same side." Mary mumbled to herself, franticly assembling parts for her newest, unfinished invention, "We were the perfect pair."

Mary had been working on this invention for nearly a year in her spare moments, knowing full well Susan would never agree to help her with it. In fact Mary had discussed her idea with Susan in detail but Susan had simply scoffed at the idea.

"I never did anything to hurt you! I always had your back. I even protected you from yourself! If it wasn't for me you would have gotten Johnny killed by now and gotten yourself locked up as a result." Mary continued to mumble.

It wasn't the ethics of the device that bothered Susan but rather the feasibility of creating such a device that bothered her. To Susan it was simply impossible and any effort in creating it was simply wasted time. If Susan had even known Mary had been working on it all this time Mary was certain Susan would have done nothing but mock her incessantly.

"I never called you out on being such a prudish little bitch, even if you deserved it! I let you reject Eugene and fuss over Gil without ever rubbing in your face how much you deserved to be ignored by Gil for being so completely heartless to Eugene. I mean, even if you don't want to date him you could be nice about it. Karma!" Mary muttered, paying less attention to what she was saying as she focused more and more of her attention onto completing circuits.

By scraping parts for other inventions Mary figured she could save a significant amount of time in the development of her latest plan. The ray mechanism from the Turbo Dream Machine wasn't quite right but it would do for this prototype and would save her days of fashioning a casing and a means of deploying her invention.

"But what do you do the first moment I find something good in my life? You rain all over it! You couldn't even let me feel special and happy for one FREAKING day! You couldn't even try to see it from my perspective! No, it's all about Susan and what she wants!"

Mary's new invention would require a major amount of power to function properly and would have taken weeks to create a proper power cell from scratch. Fortunately capacitors from the genetic transformation machine would do, though Mary suspected they would only hold enough charge for one use and fry completely upon discharge. The girls would need to spend some time creating replacement parts to get the genetic machine back online but, as Mary stripped out the parts, she hoped "Johnny X" wouldn't be needed until the repairs could be made.

"'It's wrong! It's gross! I'm going to tell mom and dad!'" Mary yelled followed by a handful of annoyed sounds forming neither words nor ideas but rather containing nothing but frustration.

The last component to scrap was one of the helmets from the rainy day entertainment device the girls had made. Its original design for inputting sensory information wasn't quite what Mary needed but reversing the internal scanners would do the trick.

"But I'm not mad, no not at all. Okay, maybe a bit but it will all be better soon. I'll fix everything!" Mary said with a gitty laugh as she connected the Frankenstein like device to the girl's main computer.

It had taken Mary nearly a year to create an alpha version of the internal circuitry for her ray gun. By scrounging parts from other inventions she had temporarily destroyed three of her own prized inventions and put her computer system at risk of suffering an overload but she had shaved the last few months of slow development down to two hours. The device lacked the normal aesthetic appeal that normally was worked into all of the girl's devices not to mention it was largely untested.

Mary knew she had no chance to run any safety trials on the device; the improper power supply would almost certainly fry the new circuit boards Mary had designed during the first usage. If the computer survived the computational strain of the device her blueprints would be safe and it she could create replacements circuits to try again… in three months. If the computer failed it might take another year to redesign them from scratch.

"I'm only going to get one chance to make us a nice, functional family again." Mary said to herself as she began to set up near the lab window that overlooked the Test family's front lawn. It felt strange setting up a sniper position in the lab but Mary knew that she'd have to 'attack' Susan while she was still outside. If Susan made it into the house Mary would not be able to use the ray without running the risk of being caught using lasers in the house and if Mary allowed Susan to make it to the lab she'd freak out the moment she saw the mess Mary had made.

"I'll just have to sit… and wait… and pray that this works." Mary whispered as she crouched down in front of the window, trying to stay hidden as she waited for Susan to return home, double and triple checking every circuit over and over again in her head.

Mary sat silently in the lab for nearly an hour before spotting Susan and Johnny approaching from the down the street. It seemed the two were playing it safe and not returning home until the time they would normally arrive home from school.

"I'm sorry if I freaked out on you guys earlier today." Susan said, apologizing to Johnny, "I was just freaked out and I kind of acted on instinct. I don't even think I knew how mean I sounded until I watched Mary leave the restaurant."

"Are you sure we shouldn't have gone after her? I mean, she was REALLY upset and what not." Johnny asked, not for the first time since Mary had left.

"Yeah, I'm sure. She just needs some time to cool down and collect herself. I'll have a talk with her after dinner in the lab to make sure everything is okay." Susan replied, patting Johnny on the back supportively as the reached their mailbox.

"Are you sure though because, I mean you guys are science dweebs… I mean scientists… and you guys do overreact sometimes." Johnny asked, trying to gain more reassurance.

"Oh please, we're not that bad. Sure we might get a little upset sometimes when experiments backfire…"

"Or I break into the lab…" Johnny added.

"Or when you break into the lab but you act like we're completely crazy." Susan said with a harsh laugh, unaware that Mary was aiming her latest invention straight for Susan's head.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Johnny replied, unaware that at that exact same moment Mary squeezed the trigger, releasing a few seconds worth of invisible rays before burning out and lighting on fire in her hands.


	17. The best laid plans

The device nearly completely melted by the time Mary found the fire extinguisher (something that she probably should have thought of before firing her weapon at her sister). It didn't take long to put out the smoldering plastic but Mary didn't even try to scrape the device off the floor.

Though the synaptic helmet blocked part of her hearing she had heard no screaming from outside and, upon looking out the window and not seeing Johnny or Susan she felt somewhat assured knowing that no one had suffered any injury from her attempt (something she had considered an extremely remote possibility… less then one percent chance of cranial damage to either herself or her target.)

As the smoke began to be sucked out of the air by the emergency air filter, Mary approached the labs main computer to assess the results.

"Good, doesn't look to be damaged." Mary said happily, clicking through a few drop down menus to find some information on the results of her experiment.

01010101

Selective engram scan on test subject 1 (Mary Test) 100%

Data processing and pattern isolation 100%

Device start-up 100%

Synaptic projection 86%

-Warning: Input failure. Device not responding to diagnostic probes. Please check connection and try again.-

01010101

"86% transfer, that's more then I expected. Now all we have to do is wait and see if the transfer takes hold." Mary said with a smile as she read the computers report, "I wonder how long it will take before I'll see an effect."

"What the hell happened in here?" Susan yelped, her bright blue eyes growing painfully wide as she eyed all the partially dismantled equipment and the last traces of smoke being sucked up by the main vent.

"Umm… I came up here to clear my head but when I got here Eugene had broken in." Mary stammered, "I caught him trying to steal our inventions… and shouting something about making you love him… or something."

Mary quickly erased the output filed that stored the result of her test, hoping to do so before Susan could notice.

"He wanted to steal part our inventions to make me love him?" Susan asked in disbelief, "What, did he think he could blackmail me into going on a date with him or something?"

"Yeah, I think he said something about that." Mary replied, latching onto Susan's idea.

"Well I'm going to let him know… AGAIN… that I am never EVER going to go out with him even if he does steal my things!" Susan complained, walking over to the computer before opening a channel to Bling Bling Island.

"I'm… going to go… check on… Dinner." Mary said as she backed her way towards the labs main door, knowing Susan wasn't even listening to her anymore. She knew Eugene would deny breaking into the lab (since it was in fact not true) and if Mary wasn't around to accuse him Susan would have no chance of catching her in a lie.

"Crud! I don't think the synaptic transfer worked!" Mary thought to herself as she made it through the main door just as Eugene appeared on the monitor screen.

"Ah, my dear Susan, what a pleasure it is to see you. May I say how lovely you look this afternoon." Bling Bling uttered with his usual creepy charm.

"Can it Eugene, I know what you did…" Mary heard Susan say just as the door closed behind her.

"I don't understand why it didn't work!" Mary mumbled to herself as she headed towards the bedroom she shared with Susan, "I was sure by scanning the parts of my brain that contained my affection for Johnny and projecting them into Susan's head I could graft my crush onto her! It should have worked perfectly! With feelings for Johnny she couldn't possibly tell on me without getting herself in trouble and we could go back to the way things were with Gil… only this time Johnny will notices us and he's already admitted he likes me better then Susan."

Fearing that her first successfully romantic relationship was now doomed, Mary's heart sank. She had promised herself that she would fix things but the only plan she could think of (that didn't involve injuring Susan… something she had considered in anger for a few moments after leaving the restaurant but quickly realized she couldn't do. Even if Susan was being unfair, Mary loved her sister and wanted only the best for the both of them) failed. Rather then stopping at her room Mary headed downstairs, knowing that by now her father was certainly home and likely in the middle of cooking dinner.

"Hi dad." Mary said, her depressed mood clearly evident in her voice as she stood at the doorway to the kitchen.

"Oh hi sweetie, what's the matter? You sound a little blue." Her father asked.

"Yeah, I had a hard day today. I'm not feeling too great so I hope you won't be mad if I skip dinner. I think I just want to go to bed early tonight." Mary explained, hoping her father wouldn't ask what was wrong.

"Are… are you sure? It's still pretty early and you should probably eat something. I'm making my famous meatloaf balls tonight!"

"Yeah, I'm just totally beat." Mary replied, turning around to head back upstairs.

"Alright, if you say so but if you change your mind I'll still set your place at the table." Her father said, not sure what was really wrong but suddenly wondering if maybe it was 'girl problems', "Umm… do you want your mother to come up and check on you when she gets home?"

"No, I don't think so." Mary replied meekly, heading up the stairs as she spoke.

As Mary walked down the hallway towards her room she noticed Johnny's bedroom door was open and saw him and Dukey playing the new video game she had bought him the day before. She smiled softly to herself as she made haste passed his room, feeling tears well up in her eyes and begging herself to keep them in until she made it the safety and privacy of her bedroom. She succeeded, but barely managed to close the door before breaking out into silent sobs. It was all Mary could do to find her bed and burry her face in her pillow with her tear hindered vision.

"Why?" Mary asked herself out loud over and over again before eventually crying herself to sleep.

Though she didn't know it, it was after midnight when she awoke to the sensation of someone shaking her shoulders.

"Wake up Mary… please wake up. I need to talk to you!" Susan whispered in Mary's ear.

"I'm awake, I'm awake. What is it?" Mary asked, her eyes still blurry and her face still stained from her tears.

"I've been thinking, especially after what dad said about you not coming down for dinner, and I want to apologize. I was really way, way to mean today. You two caught me off guard today and I overreacted." Susan began to explain.

"It's okay, I forgive you. I know you weren't trying to be mean but… it's not really how you said it that made me sad but what you said and what it meant that made me said." Mary explained, surprised by how quickly and naturally she forgave her sister, not even thinking about it before the words left her mouth.

"Yeah, I kind of understand that. You see, at the time…" Susan began.

"You don't have to explain yourself, its okay… I forgive you." Mary interrupted, not feeling up to Susan's prolonged explanation.

"No, I really need to explain myself. Please, I need to get it out in the open." Susan explained.

Mary simply nodded as she tried to wipe the dried tears out of her eyes and clear her vision, though since the room was dark she couldn't see much regardless.

"I don't think I even realized it at the time but the more I think about it the more I realize you were right… I was jealous of you. I had just gotten used to the idea that we were twins and did everything together… even longed after the same boy. Seeing you two together just made me feel… alone and I didn't know how to handle it. You know, I've never been alone before. I've never even wanted to be alone. It might sound silly but I guess I figured we'd always be together doing the same things." Susan explained, her red blushed cheeks hidden by the rooms darkness.

"Yeah, I kind of know how you feel. Even though you don't like him and I don't like him I guess I always felt alone every time Eugene would call or show up and obsess over you. I don't want him to obsess over me but at the same time I wished he would." Mary assured her sister.

Susan reached under her sister's comforter and grabbed her hand, silently holding it for a few moments. It felt like hours before Susan finally spoke again.

"You might hate me for saying this… and I wouldn't blame you if you did… and I don't know if it's because of what you said outside of the theater or if it was because I got to spend the day with him today but I think I'm actually starting to see what you see in Johnny." Susan said, terrified of how Mary might respond to such a strange confession.

"What… what do you mean?" Mary asked, not sure what to think about her sisters confession.

"Well, looking back on today he was kind of fun to be with… and it was sweet how he seemed really concerned about you… and he is kind of cute in a weird, little brother way…" Susan began to explain, continuing on with more details though Mary stopped listening, her mind suddenly wondering if perhaps she had simply given up to early in finding an effect in Susan. After all, it wasn't like Mary randomly blurted out her feelings all day long so why would her sister.

"So… what do you think?" Susan asked, sounding extremely nervous.

"About what?" Mary asked, suddenly realizing she had completely tuned her sister out.

"About my idea."

"Umm… what idea?" Mary asked.

"Oh please, don't make me explain it again! If you don't like it just tell me and…"

"Just explain it again, I want to make sure I understood what you meant." Mary interrupted, suggesting a politer alternative to admitting she simply had stopped listening.

"I suggested maybe we could go back to the way things used to be… no secrets, no hiding from each other, sharing what we felt and thought… and share Johnny just like we shared Gil…maybe." Susan suggested, finding it hard to even make the last suggestion from fear of Mary exploding at her over her hypocrisy.


	18. another awakening

With all the excitement the day before, Mary had completely forgotten to deactivate the girls dream machine. Just like the evening previous, Johnny spent his whole night living through some of the strangest and most powerful dreams he had ever experienced.

It was two am when Johnny awoke from a bizarre dream. It seemed that his sisters had accidentally triggered their DNA modifier machine while doing some maintenance and both girls found themselves transformed into human animal hybrids. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem for the girls but with their hands transformed into paws neither girl could perform the necessary adjustments to reset the machine. Despite the embarrassment, both girls had to seek out Johnny for assistance with their tails between their legs (both literally and figuratively).

Mary had inadvertently transformed herself into a dog girl, proving to be both cute and agreeable. Susan, on the other hand, had been transformed into a cat girl, only further amplifying her disdain for groups and cooperation.

Johnny was halfway through fixing the machine (finding it hard to do much work with Mary constantly nuzzling up against him and Susan periodically appearing mostly to get hissy and try futilely to reassemble the circuits herself) when he awoke to the sensation of movement on the edge of his bed. Johnny wondered if it was Dukey who was trying to sneak under his covers or Mary.

He didn't have to wait long to find out.

"Morning Cutie!" Mary whispered into Johnny's ear as she slid up against his left side.

"Mary, what are you doing?" Johnny whispered, not wanting to wake Dukey if he wasn't awake already, "Don't you remember what Susan said? If she catches you in here she'll tell mom and dad!"

Johnny turned his head to look at his sister, again dressed in her purple nightgown though most of her body was covered by Johnny's blanket.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem anymore." Mary whispered gleefully as she cuddled up against her little brother.

Johnny was about to speak when he noticed two pairs of glasses on his night stand, one circular and one rectangular.

"Mary and I have come to an understanding." Johnny heard Susan whisper into his ear as he felt someone sneak into his bed on the right side, "And we just couldn't wait until morning to let you know about it."

Johnny wondered if this was yet another strange dream like the ones he had experienced the last two nights. As he felt the softness and warmth of his sisters hands wrap up against him and the gentle kisses he felt them placing on his neck Johnny concluded two things. First, this encounter was too real to be a dream.

Second, with how his sisters had acted towards Gil Johnny knew his life was going to become even more insane with both Mary and Susan after him.

In the morning he would figure out how to deal with all that had happened. For now Johnny placed a gentle kiss on both Mary and Susan's forehead. Johnny couldn't help but smile as both girls sighed and in unison whispered "Ahh… Johnny!" just as they had uttered my times in pursuit of Gil.

*The End… of Episode 1*


	19. Post Script

It had been nearly two weeks since Mary and Susan had a late night heart to heart talk that resulted in both sisters admitting feelings for Johnny. Despite it feeling a bit unnatural, Susan was adjusting to the sudden realization of romantic attraction and it wasn't more then a day or two before a hint of competitiveness appeared in their love triangle. Despite having difficulty accepting her attraction to Johnny, Susan quickly found she simply couldn't let Mary be on equal footing with her. Susan knew that ultimately no love triangle could last whether it was with Gil or Johnny and was determined to not be the one left in the cold.

Neither Susan nor Mary liked leaving the other alone for too long (both out of habit and out of concern for falling behind) but occasionally one girl would out smart the other. Susan knew from the transponder signal hidden in Mary's crescent moon barrette that she was down at the local park, likely spending the Sunday alone with Johnny. Susan had considered heading down to the park and "unexpectedly" running into her siblings but the sorry state of the lab kept her from leaving. Despite it being two weeks since Bling Bling (or in reality Mary) had ransacked the lab no real progress towards cleaning it up had been made.

Susan found a laser drill and headed over to the window, deciding she would at least remove the strange blob of melted plastic from the floor before heading outside. At the lowest setting it took nearly an hour to remove the blob without damaging the floor too greatly. Much to Susan's surprise, when she removed the blob from the floor she noticed that it seemed to have remnants of blue circuit boards within it, a design spec only the girls used.

"So it's one of my devices?" Susan asked herself, "There are lots of damaged devices but I didn't think any were missing. I was certain this was going to be one Eugene's moronic toys."

Though beyond functioning and repair, Susan decided to hook the computer analyzer up to the remaining circuits in an attempt to determine the device's function. The computer's output, though interesting, held no useful data. The device had synaptic potential, possibly dealing with brain functions but there was too little of it left to draw any detailed conclusions.

Susan was about to turn the computer off when the words "Probable remains of MTest-Device_L10246"appeared on the bottom of the read out.

"Since it only has an ID number it must have been an unfinished prototype… but I didn't think any of those were missing." Susan said out loud as she scratched her head, "Computer, display all stored information regarding MTest-Device_L10246."

01010101

MTest-Device_L10246

Code name: The thought transfer 3000

Specified Desired Functions: To allow for scanning of synaptic pathways within a subject's brain and graft matching synaptic pathways onto target's brain.

Specified Goal Properties: To cause subject and target to share similar beliefs.

Design Limitations: Target and Subject must have similar neural structure for graft to take hold. Synaptic paths can not be modified or artificially created, leaving only limited available transfers.

Status: Uncompleted

Test Results: File deleted by user at T-330 hours

01010101

Susan recognized the device description; it was the brain scanner Mary had been so amped up on sometime back. Mary speculated that she could transfer beliefs and desires from one person to another simply by grafting those beliefs onto an unwitting subject's brain. Since the thoughts couldn't be modified (the girls love for Gil couldn't be flipped to Gil's love for the girls) the whole idea seemed pointless even beyond the fact that the technological concept itself was flawed from Susan's perspective.

"I guess if it worked we could have copied Eugene's obsession with me and planted it into Gil… but that wouldn't help Mary any. Plus, I thought she had given up on this. I mean, I told her it was stupid to continue since I was certain it wouldn't work." Susan muttered to herself, not even being able to comprehend the idea that Mary might belief in something Susan believed to be impossible.

'Why would she test it and then delete the results?' Susan wondered, 'I mean, I can see it failed and it's not like I'm surprised by that. She didn't have to hide her failure from me. It's sweet that she cares so much about my opinion of her… work…'

All at once the pieces began to fit together in Susan's mind…

Eugene had been even more adamant then normal when Susan had accused him of breaking into their lab a few weeks earlier. It now seemed like that was because he actually hadn't broken into the lab.

Mary deleted the test results at approximately the same time Eugene had supposedly broken into the lab. If Eugene hadn't broken into the lab then the damage must have been caused by someone else... and the only probably suspect was Mary. The damage somehow must all link up to testing the thought transfer device.

'But whose thoughts was she transmitting? And onto whom?' Susan wondered.

Susan's deep blue eyes flicked into a fiery red blaze as the final piece of the puzzle feel into place.

"That little skunk!" Susan shouted, "I told her I wouldn't let her be with Johnny so she tried to brainwash me into loving him too! No wonder it all came over me so quickly… it's because Mary planted it there!"

Knowing the feelings she had felt for her brother the last few weeks were not her own, Susan's outrage fizzled out the false thoughts Mary had transferred into her head.

"And she thought I was mean before now! She's going to get it now!" Susan fumed.

- - End of Episode 1. Keep your eyes peeled as there may be an episode 2 coming out. - -


	20. Johnny over the limit

For those who are interested, a sequel story has begun entitled "Johnny over the limit."


End file.
